The present disclosure relates generally to information handling systems, and more particularly to Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) auto-pinning and FCoE backup path pinning by information handling systems.
As the value and use of information continues to increase, individuals and businesses seek additional ways to process and store information. One option available to users is information handling systems. An information handling system generally processes, compiles, stores, and/or communicates information or data for business, personal, or other purposes thereby allowing users to take advantage of the value of the information. Because technology and information handling needs and requirements vary between different users or applications, information handling systems may also vary regarding what information is handled, how the information is handled, how much information is processed, stored, or communicated, and how quickly and efficiently the information may be processed, stored, or communicated. The variations in information handling systems allow for information handling systems to be general or configured for a specific user or specific use such as financial transaction processing, airline reservations, enterprise data storage, or global communications. In addition, information handling systems may include a variety of hardware and software components that may be configured to process, store, and communicate information and may include one or more computer systems, data storage systems, and networking systems.
Some information handling systems provide a Fibre Channel (FC) Storage Area Network (SAN) for the storage of data. In such systems, an FC switch may be utilized to couple the FC storage devices to servers via a Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) Forwarder (FCF) that performs FC over Ethernet (FCoE)-to-FC protocol conversions on Ethernet communications sent from the servers to the FC storage devices, as well as FC-to-FCoE protocol conversions on FC communications sent from the FC storage devices to the servers. Such FCFs allow for servers that communicate via the Ethernet protocol to utilize FC SANs that communicate via the FC protocol. In some server/FCF configurations, multiple links may be provided between a server and an FCF, and those links may be aggregated using an aggregation protocol to provide an aggregated interface. For example, a port channel utilizing Virtual link Trunking (VLT), which is a link aggregation protocol available in devices provided by DELL® Inc. of Round Rock, Tex., United States, may be used to aggregate the links between FCFs and servers. To support FCoE along with an aggregation interface, a user may statically pin one of the ports in the aggregation interface for FCoE traffic per FC SAN by, for example, providing a command via a command line interface (CLI). In some implementations, the server may include a Converged Network Adapter (CNA) having four ports, with one port per FC SAN dedicated for Ethernet traffic, and only one port that is capable of being pinned for FCoE traffic per FC SAN. As such, using an aggregated interface, only two of the four ports on that CNA can be configured for FCoE traffic.
Similarly, one or more FCoE Initialization Protocol (FIP) snooping bridges (FSBs) may be provided between the server and the FCF, and may provide multiple links to the FCF that can be aggregated as an aggregated interface, as well as multiple links to the server device(s). The FSB may be dedicated to a particular SAN, but may be coupled to other FCFs of other SANs as well. However, in current implementations, only one of the ports in an aggregated interface to the FCF, which is provided for the SAN to which the FSB is dedicated, can be configured as an FCoE pinned port. Thus, when multiple links of an aggregated interface are provided between the server and the FSB (or between the FCF and the FSB), only one of those links may be pinned for FCoE traffic, which is inefficient as there is potential unused bandwidth on the additional links for that FCoE traffic.
Furthermore, when a link on a port that is pinned for FCoE traffic goes down, fails, or otherwise becomes unavailable, it must be backed up by a link provided by another member port connected to the same peer device. For example, when a link between an FSB and a FCF goes down, only another link provided between that FSB and that FCF may be used as a backup for the FCoE traffic that was being provided between the FSB and the FCF by the link that is no longer available. Thus, if there are no additional links being provided between the FSB and the FCF, there is no backup link available and a fabric login must occur to reestablish the link, even when there are other paths that are available between the FSB and the FCF.
Accordingly, it would be desirable to provide an improved FCoE pinning system with an FCoE backup path.